Use tax failed in rural parts of Greene County

Higher turnout gave edge to voters opposing the tax

Nov. 7, 2013

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In the days and weeks ahead, Greene County leaders will continue to ask themselves what went wrong.

On Tuesday, county voters rejected a use tax proposal.

The county’s strategy going into the election was to get the word out to as many potential “yes” voters as possible. That started in-house, with employees encouraged to educate others about use taxes.

From there, county officials visited a Springfield City Council meeting, senior centers, Rotary clubs and other civic organizations.

County Administrator Tim Smith estimated the county made 37 presentations. The University of Missouri Extension Service in Greene County and the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce both endorsed the tax.

But it wasn’t enough.

Looking at results broken down by precinct, the tax failed in the rural areas of the county, while it largely passed in the city of Springfield area. But there just weren’t enough yes votes.

Overall voter turnout was 8.06 percent across the county, but breaking that number down to compare voters in the city of Springfield versus the rural area outside of city limits is much more illuminating.

The average voter turnout rate in the areas of the county outside city limits was closer to 8.7 percent, an analysis by the News-Leader shows. Almost all of those precincts had a majority of “no” votes — meaning that slightly higher turnout rate gave the edge to voters against the tax.

So why did people vote no in the first place?

County officials spent some of Wednesday morning discussing theories.

All agreed that there is a segment of the population that will reject new taxes, regardless of what the revenue would go for.

Another potential driver could have been general distrust of government at all levels, especially in light of the recent federal government shutdown, commissioners theorized.

Commissioner Roseann Bentley noted how difficult it is to explain a use tax, as opposed to a sales tax.

“I’ve heard reasons all over the board, and I don’t know if any of them are right,” Commissioner Harold Bengsch said.